Electronic gaming machines (“EGMs”) offer a variety of games such as mechanical spinning reel games, video spinning reel games, video poker games, roulette games, keno games and other types of wagering games that are commonly deployed at a casino for use by players. Playing the EGMs typically requires the player to place a wager on the outcome of a game, whereby the outcome is determined by some random mechanism that in regulated markets must comply with the specifications published by the regulatory body.
Server based gaming technologies (e.g. Video Lottery with central random number generation of the type disclosed in Gaming Laboratories International, Inc. Standard Series entitled Client Server Systems GLI-21 v2.2 dated May 18, 2007, U.S. Pat. No. 6,409,602 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,749,510) are becoming more and more important in recent years as governments seek to gain as much control as possible over operations in the gaming industry. To this end the game results and financial transactions (pay-in, pay-out) must be stored centrally on systems networked to the individual electronic gaming machines (“EGMs”) such that records are available in order to continuously monitor the various functions and outcomes of individual games and gaming activities.
There are different random number generator (“RNG”) models in use with EGMs for generating random numbers (“RNs”) during game play to determine game outcomes. One such technique is generation of RNs at a central server or computing system. This is a solution that simplifies the process of maintaining records of game play results in a single central location. Central RN generation also reduces the risk of security breaches that can occur if local RNGs are used. This is because in cases when the RNs are generated on each individual EGM and subsequently together with the game outcome transferred to the central server where the game history and the accounting data are stored, local manipulations of the RNG are theoretically feasible.
Historically, the first EGMs based on a modern microprocessor architecture have been equipped with so-called pseudo-RNGs: software algorithms that deterministically generate a series of numbers with the statistical properties of random series. Historical data related to the operation of the software based pseudo-RNG was maintained locally on the EGM, although as EGMs were connected to networks, it became possible to upload the data to a central server for tracking. In lottery applications, central pseudo-RNGs have been used where RNs are provided over a network to individual EGMs connected to the network. Data related to operation of the pseudo-RNGs was typically maintained in a central storage.
A problem with software based pseudo-RNGs is that they generate deterministic series of numbers which merely exhibit the statistical properties of random series but which are not truly random. This restriction means that in cases where true random series are a crucial requirement, a different type of RNG must be used: a true RNG (“TRNG”) implemented in hardware where the randomness generation is based on physical processes. Usually, the main constraint of such TRNGs is that they do not produce random numbers on demand but instead they provide a more or less continuous stream of numbers. In cases where temporary storage of previously generated random numbers (real-time requirement) is forbidden, the TRNG stream must be accessed in an appropriate way in order not to overflow the server with requests. The present invention provides a means and method to implement a TRNG that optimizes the access times and computational resources in order to achieve operating speeds that are fast enough to supply RNs to a large network of EGMs while maintaining records of all RNs generated in a central database where they can be easily stored and verified. For this purpose, any kind of TRNG can be used. The present invention however, is explained in a context where a TRNG based on the quantum measurement of the spatial resolution of single photons, such as that, for example, described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,519,641 to Ribordy et al., incorporated herein by reference, which is referred to throughout the following description as Quantum HW. It should be understood that the present invention can be used to optimize the access to any other kind of TRNG such as, for example, that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,249,009 to Kim et al., incorporated herein by reference, where a quantum measurement of single photons with respect to the time resolution is employed in order to generate the random stream.